Method and apparatus for selectively establishing communication with one of plural devices associated with a single telephone number

ABSTRACT

A system for (and a method of) selectively establishing communication with one of plural devices associated with a single telephone number is provided. In a preferred embodiment, the system includes a wireless connect unit connected between an enterprise private branch exchange (PBX) network and a public switched telephone network. The wireless connect unit preferably serves as a gateway between the PBX and one or more remote communication devices. The remote devices can be used as standard PBX office telephones for both inbound and outbound telephone calls. Thus, features of the PBX network (e.g., voice mail, direct extension dialing, corporate calling plan, etc.) are available to the remote device even though they are not physically connected to the PBX. When the system receives an incoming call, it can route the call to an office telephone and one or more of the remote devices simultaneously or as desired by the user.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 11/842,399,filed Aug. 21, 2007, which is a continuation of application Ser. No.11/604,740, filed on Nov. 28, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,274,782, whichis a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/593,541, filed Jun. 14,2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,162,020, which claims priority fromprovisional application Nos. 60/139,498, filed Jun. 14, 1999, and60/185,070, filed Feb. 25, 2000, which are hereby incorporated byreference in their entireties.

BACKGROUND

It has become relatively common for individuals to possess a number ofdifferent devices through which they communicate. For example, a personmay have a home telephone, a wireless telephone, a pager and an officetelephone. As the population becomes increasingly mobile, making contactwith a person through one of these communication devices has become moredifficult.

Call forwarding is one method of addressing this problem. Certaintelephone systems allow users to enter another number to which a call isforwarded if not answered by a specified number of rings. This shouldallow an individual with multiple telephone devices to forward the callto such devices until the telephone at which the individual is locatedfinally rings. However, if several telephones are involved, thisapproach becomes complicated. Moreover, it requires the calling party toremain on the line for a significant period of time if the call is to beforwarded multiple times. Furthermore, it is necessary that callforwarding capabilities exist on each of the individual's telephones. Inaddition, this approach requires that all telephones involved bereprogrammed each time an individual desires to initiate callforwarding. A significant drawback to this forwarding strategy is that,in each leg of the forwarded call, the calling party is terminated onthe last device or network in the chain. It follows that the finalnumber in the forwarding scheme is responsible for all availableenhanced services or voice mail available to the caller. Accordingly,although a call may have been initially placed to an office telephoneequipped with voice mail and/or operator assist, all such enhancedservices of the corporate network are lost once the call is forwardedoff the corporate PBX (e.g., to the user's wireless telephone).

Travel can also exacerbate the difficulty of establishing communicationwith an individual having access to multiple telephone devices. Uponchecking into a hotel, the telephone in a traveler's hotel room becomesavailable as yet another potential means of contact. Unfortunately, thisforces a calling party to decide whether to attempt to contact thetraveler through his or her room telephone or other telephone device(e.g., wireless telephone or pager). If the traveler does not answer thecalled telephone, the calling party then must decide whether to leave amessage (unaware of when, or if, the message will be retrieved) orinstead attempt to reach the traveler via his or her other telephone.Likewise, if the traveler is expecting an important call but is unsurewhether it will be placed to his room telephone or wireless telephone,the traveler may feel compelled to remain within his room until the callhas been received. In addition, if the traveler's wireless telephonedoes not support certain types of long distance calls (e.g., to variousforeign countries), the traveler may be able to place certain types ofcalls only from his or her hotel room.

The office telephone is the primary point of contact of most businesspeople. Typically, corporations invest significantly in their officetelephone infrastructure, which often includes voice mail, paging andunified messaging systems. In addition, most corporations havenegotiated contracts with their telephone carriers (e.g., local and longdistance carriers) to ensure they obtain the lowest possible rates forcalls placed via their corporate network. However, because the corporateworkforce is becoming increasingly mobile, more business people areusing wireless telephones to conduct their business when they are out ofthe office. This has resulted in corporations spending a larger portionof their telecommunications budget on wireless communications, with farless favorable negotiated rates than the rates of their corporatenetwork. In addition, wireless communication systems often lack theenhanced conveniences (e.g., interoffice voice mail, direct extensiondialing, etc.) that corporate users have come to expect in the officeenvironment.

A solution to the aforementioned problems would be to allow wirelesstelephony devices (e.g., wireless telephones or pagers) to access anoffice telephone system as though they were desktop telephones connectedto the company's PBX. It is desirable to incorporate wireless devicesinto the PBX network so that users may place and receive telephone callsusing the office PBX telephone system even though they are at a remotelocation (e.g., out of the office). This would allow the enhancedconveniences of today's PBX networks (e.g., interoffice voice mail,direct extension dialing, etc.) to be available on wirelessdevices—something which is desperately needed in today's society.

There have been recent attempts to incorporate wireless telephones intoPBX networks. One system provided by Ericsson, requires the creation ofa mini-cellular network within the confines of the enterprise. Acellular switching unit, unique wireless telephones and an auxiliaryserver are required to route inbound telephone calls to a wirelesshandset serving as a remote office telephone.

An in-building wireless system has been proposed by Nortel Networks.This system requires the wiring of pico-cells throughout theenterprise's building. The system routes inbound telephone calls tospecialized wireless telephones serving as additional office PBXtelephones. The wireless telephones cannot be used as conventionalstandard wireless telephones until they leave the premises.

These systems allow inbound calls to be routed to an office telephoneand a wireless telephone, but they are not without their shortcomings.For example, each system requires specialized cellular equipment andwireless handsets. Moreover, the systems only use the wirelesstelephones for inbound telephone calls. In addition, these systemscannot use the wireless telephone as a conventional wireless telephone(i.e., not part of the enterprise's PBX network) within the building.

SUMMARY

A system for (and a method of) selectively establishing communicationwith one of plural devices associated with a single telephone number isprovided. In a preferred embodiment, the system includes a wirelessconnect unit connected between an enterprise private branch exchange(PBX) network and a public switched telephone network. The wirelessconnect unit preferably serves as a gateway between the PBX and one ormore remote communication devices. The remote devices can be used asstandard PBX office telephones for both inbound and outbound telephonecalls. Thus, features of the PBX network (e.g., voice mail, directextension dialing, corporate calling plan, etc.) are available to theremote device even though they are not physically connected to the PBX.When the system receives an incoming call, it can route the call to anoffice telephone and one or more of the remote devices simultaneously oras desired by the user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary telecommunication system constructed inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2. illustrates a wireless connect unit in accordance with anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates another exemplary telecommunication systemconstructed in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates in flowchart form exemplary inbound call processingflow in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates in flowchart form exemplary remote outbound callprocessing flow in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Preferred embodiments and applications of the invention will now bedescribed. Other embodiments may be realized and structural or logicalchanges may be made to the disclosed embodiments without departing fromthe spirit or scope of the invention. Although the preferred embodimentsdisclosed herein have been particularly described as applied to abusiness or office environment, it should be readily apparent that theinvention may be embodied for any use or application having the same orsimilar problems.

The invention is more fully understood with reference to the preferredembodiments depicted in FIGS. 1-5. A first exemplary embodiment of theinvention is discussed and illustrated with reference to itsimplementation within an office building or other enterpriseestablishment. In an office, for example, personnel are assigned tooffices (or cubicles) with each office having an associated telephone.The office telephones are typically connected to a PBX, exchange, orother call processing infrastructure. The PBX allows each officetelephone to have its own telephone extension and a direct inward dial(DID) telephone number. As known in the art, a telephone extension istypically a three or four digit telephone number wherestation-to-station (i.e., office-to-office) calls can be placed bydialing the three or four digit extension. This is commonly referred toas direct extension dialing. As also known in the art, a DID telephonenumber allows external calls (i.e., calls initiated outside of theoffice PBX) to be placed directly to the office telephone.

The invention is not to be limited to any particular environment. Theinvention may be implemented, for example, in a hotel, boarding house,dormitory, apartment, or other commercial or residential establishment,where individuals are assigned to a unique extension or DID telephonenumber. The term “office” as used herein encompasses a singular room orspace within a business or other enterprise, or a hotel room or similarfacility. The term “user” as used herein encompasses office personnel,hotel guests or other individuals associated with a telephone extensionand DID telephone number.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary telecommunication system 10 constructedin accordance with an embodiment of the invention. As will be discussedbelow, the system 10 provides for a full integration of remote telephonydevices, such as a wireless telephone 70, into an office or hotel PBX orother communications network. In doing so, the system 10 can selectivelyestablish communications with one of a plurality of telephony devicesassociated with a particular telephone extension or DID telephonenumber. Moreover, the system 10 will allow remote devices such as thewireless telephone 70 to perform as a fully functional standard officetelephone 12 a, 12 b for both inbound and outbound communications. Thatis, a remote device will be able to use features of the office network(e.g., direct extension dialing, corporate dialing plan, etc.) eventhough the device is not within the confines of the office or notdirectly connected to the office PBX. The system also allows thewireless telephone 70 to operate as an independent wireless telephone ifso desired. That is, the wireless telephone 70 may receive calls placedto its (non-office) DID telephone number even though the system 10routes PBX calls to the telephone 70.

The system 10 as particularly illustrated herein includes a conventionaloffice PBX network 11. The PBX network 11 may include a plurality ofstandard telephones 12 a, 12 b respectively connected to a conventionalPBX 14 via communication lines 18 a, 18 b. The PBX 14, which may be anycommercially available one such as a Meridian 1 PBX produced by NortelNetworks, is connected to a calling network such as a public switchedtelephone network (PSTN) 16 by a primary rate interface (PRI) connection20 or other suitable communication line or medium. The standardtelephones 12 a, 12 b can be any digital or analog telephone or othercommunication device known in the art. As illustrated in FIG. 1, thefirst telephone 12 a is a digital telephone while the second telephone12 b is an analog telephone. For clarity purposes only, two telephones12 a, 12 b are illustrated in FIG. 1, but it should be appreciated thatany number or combination of telephones or other communication devicescan be supported by the system 10. Moreover, although it is desirable touse digital telephones, the invention is not to be limited to theparticular type of telephone used in the system 10.

The PBX 14 is coupled to a wireless connect unit (WC) 30. The WC 30 isconnected to the PBX 14 and telephones 12 a, 12 b by suitablecommunication media 22 a, 22 b. The WC 30 is also connected to a PSTN 54in this embodiment by a PRI connection or other suitable digitalcommunication medium. The illustrated PRI connection between the WC 30and the PSTN 54 includes a first PRI connection 32, a channel serviceunit (CSU) 34, and a second PRI connection 36. As known in the art, aCSU is a mechanism for connecting a computer (or other device) to adigital medium that allows a customer to utilize their own equipment toretime and regenerate incoming signals. It should be appreciated thatthe illustrated connection between the WC 30 and the PSTN 54 isutilizing CSU 34 and PRIs 32, 36, which is one of many suitableconnections. Accordingly, the invention should not be limited to theillustrated connection. The WC 30 is one of the mechanisms that allowsthe integration of remote devices (e.g., wireless telephone 70) into thePBX network 11 and its operation will be described below in more detail.

The WC 30 is preferably connected to a local area network (LAN) 40 by anappropriate communication medium 38. Although a LAN 40 is illustrated,it should be appreciated that any other network could be used. Aplurality of computers (e.g., 42 a, 42 b) may be respectively connectedto the LAN 40 by any appropriate communication lines 44 a, 44 b. Thecomputers 42 a, 42 b can be used by network administrators or others tomaintain WC 30 and other portions of the system 10. The LAN 40 may alsobe connected to the Internet 50 by a suitable communication medium 48. Afirewall 46 may be used for security purposes. In a preferredembodiment, Internet 50 can be used to allow a remote administrationdevice 52 (e.g., a personal computer) to perform remote administrationof WC 30 by office personnel or other authorized users of the system 10.Remote administration will allow office personnel to set userpreferences for particular telephone extensions. Thus, each officetelephone extension and associated remote device is individuallyconfigurable.

PSTN 54 is connected in this embodiment to a commercial wireless carrier(or other carrier not co-located with the system 10) by a wirelessswitch 58 or other wireless carrier equipment by an appropriatecommunication medium 56. The wireless switch 58 is connected to at leastone antenna 60 (by an appropriate communication medium 62) fortransmitting signals 64 to a wireless device, such as the wirelesstelephone 70. The wireless device could also be a pager, personaldigital assistant (PDA), landline telephone, facsimile machine or otherwired/wireless communication device. It may desirable for the wirelessdevice to be capable of handling both (or either) digital and analogcommunication signals. It should be noted that any type of wirelesscommunication protocol (or a combination of different protocols), suchas TDMA, CDMA, GSM, AMPS, MSR, iDEN, WAP, etc., could be used.

It should be appreciated that the WC 30 is connected to a wirelesscarrier through a PSTN 54 and not by unique hardware or an in-officecellular network. As a result, WC 30 only has to interface withconventional components, such as the PBX 14 and PSTN 54. Thus, thesystem is substantially technology independent. Moreover, specialwireless devices are not required, which allows the remote device tofunction in its conventional manner (e.g., as a separate wirelesstelephone) and as part of the PBX network 11 (if so desired).

The WC 30 and the PBX 14 may also be connected to an accounting/billingsystem 80. The billing system 80 may also be connected to the LAN 40 sothat system administrators may access the contents of the billing system80. By incorporating a billing system 80 into the system 10, it ispossible to obtain immediate billing information for calls placedto/from the wireless telephone 70 or other remote device. This immediatebilling feature is not present in other PBX or enterprise networks andis particularly useful for corporate environments such as law firms andgovernment agencies, and hotel environments, where up to date billinginformation is essential.

As noted above, the WC 30 allows for the full integration of remotedevices into the PBX network 11. In a preferred embodiment, WC 30 is aprocessor-based stand-alone unit capable of handling communicationsdirected to the PBX network 11. In a preferred embodiment, WC 30 iscomposed of one or more processors generically represented by processormodule 310 executing one or more computer programs stored in one or morememory units generically represented by memory module 320, which iscoupled to processor module 310 via bus 330, as shown in FIG. 2. Memorymodule 320 also contains one or more databases and other processingmemory used during the overall operation of system 10, as will bedescribed below. Receiving and transmitting modules 340, 350,respectively, which are coupled to processor module 310 and memorymodule 320 via bus 330, are employed to receive and transmit informationto the PBX and PSTN during call processing, as well as receiving andtransmitting other information such as administrative information.

The modules (310, 320, 330, 340, 350) making up WC 30 may be implementedusing any known hardware or software devices. For example, in oneembodiment, workload performed by receiving and transmitting modules340, 350, as well as some of the processing functions of processormodule 310 of WC 30 are implemented using one or more conventionalprocessor-based programmable telephony interface circuit cards used tointerface WC 30 with PBX 14 and the PSTN. They are programmed to performthe conventional telephony services required to place and receive calls,as well as programmed to perform the unique call processing functionsdescribed below.

The WC 30 preferably contains a database of office extension numbers(also referred to herein as PBX extensions) and DID telephone numbersassociated with each existing PBX extension. The database will be storedon a computer readable storage medium, which may be part of (e.g., inmemory module 320) or connected to the WC 30. The database may alsocontain a wireless connect/PBX extension (hereinafter referred to as a“WC-PBX extension”) and one or more remote device telephone numbersassociated with each PBX extension. In this embodiment, software runningon the telephony cards interfaces with the databases to perform thevarious call processing functions discussed below.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, processormodule 310 executes one or more programs stored in memory module 320 toprocess calls received through PBX 14 or PSTN. FIGS. 4 and 5 illustratesome of the basic call processing events which WC 30 may be programmedto handle in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a specific example of a telecommunications system 210constructed in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Thereference numerals from FIG. 1 are used in FIG. 3 for components thatare the same between systems 10 and 210. In this example, the system 210is used in a hotel environment, but as noted above, it should beapparent that the invention can be used in any environment.

In the exemplary system 210, an accounting/billing system 280 comprisesat least a call accounting system 282 and/or a property managementsystem (PMS) 284. These systems 282, 284 are typically provided by thehotel and may be accessed and updated via the hotel LAN 40. As notedabove, the accounting/billing system 280 allows the system to obtain,display, printout, etc. immediate billing information for calls placedto/from the wireless telephone 70 or other remote device.

In the exemplary system 210, a cross connect panel 229 connects thephysical extensions 218 a, 218 b of the PBX 14 to the respective phones12 a, 12 b. The WC 230 is connected to the PBX 14 and telephones 12 a,12 b by tapping into the cross-connect panel 229 with communicationlines 222 a, 222 b, respectively. In the illustrated embodiment, theconnection to the panel 229 allows the WC 230 to detect an incomingtelephone call to one of the telephones 12 a, 12 b. Once detected, theWC 230 determines which hotel guest the call is intended for. The WC 230then dials at least one telephone number associated with the guest,which is typically the number for at least one remote device 70. If theguest answers the associated telephone 12 a, the WC 30 immediatelyceases the call to the remote telephone 70. Alternatively, if the remotetelephone 70 is answered, the WC 230 may connect the call to the remotetelephone 70.

The WC 230 allows a guest to use the hotel PBX 14 from a remote locationvia the remote telephone 70. The WC 230 receives an incoming call fromthe remote telephone 70, determines the calling number (e.g., fromautomatic number identification (ANI) information presented to thesystem) and uses this information to identify the source of the call.The WC 230 verifies that the caller is properly checked into the hotel(i.e., authorized to use the system) by comparing the ANI information toa list of current users. Upon validation, the remote phone call isconnected to the hotel guest's appropriate room extension as if theguest were using hotel telephones 12 a, 12 b.

In the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 3, the WC 230 includes a connectdatabase 291, and preferably runs software including a telephony engine298, a user interface and property management system (PMS) interface 294(hereinafter the “user/PMS interface 294”), and optionally a billinginterface 296. It should be appreciated that the user/PMS interface 294could be separate interfaces (i.e., separate applications running on theWC 230), if so desired.

The connect database 291 includes a table that maps each line port 290a, 290 b, 290 c, . . . 290 i of the WC 230 to a telephone 12 a, 12 b,etc. within one of the guest rooms of the hotel. The connect database291 also maintains information concerning each of the guests staying atthe hotel. For example, the database 291 may include records pertainingto the guest's name, a guest id, the guest's hotel room and telephoneextension, the PBX port number associated with the room telephoneextension, the telephone number of the guest's remote telephone or othercommunication device(s), and the date and time of the guest's check-inand scheduled check-out. As guests are checked into and out of thehotel, the user/PMS interface 294 modifies the contents of these recordsbased upon information provided by hotel front desk or other servicepersonnel.

The WC 230 may also contain additional databases. The databasescontained within or connected to the WC 230 in this embodiment will becollectively referred to herein as the “database subsystem.” Theadditional databases may include any known data compilation such as callactivity information for logging failures within the system 210 or portactivity. This information may include, among other things, port number,date and time of the failure/activity, whether the call was inbound oroutbound, whether the remote telephone was answered too late, whetherthe call was unanswered or whether a prompt was unrecognized. Thedatabases may also include call detail records, used to recordsuccessful connection activity. The information may include, forexample, originating port, connection port, date and time of callinitiation and termination, length of the call in hours, minutes orseconds, the guest ID of the user, telephone number dialed by theuser/switch, whether the call was inbound or outbound, the ANI of thecalling trunk, room number and telephone extension, and various billinginformation. The databases may also include a history file, systemdiagnostic information, and hotel specific information such as the nameof the hotel, telephone and area code of the hotel, number of rooms,technical assistance information, hotel code number, telephone callingrate information (dollars per minute, etc.), billing informationincluding the telephone number of the billing system's modem and otherinformation required by the hotel or the WC 230.

The user/PMS interface 294, via the hotel LAN 40, provides an interfacethrough which database information may be entered or accessed using astandard Internet browser software on any LAN-connected personalcomputer (PC) by authorized personnel. Additionally, the WC 230 maymanage check-in and check-out activity with the user/PMS interface 294that is connected directly to the hotel's PMS allowing a seamlesscheck-in/out process for the hotel staff. The interface through the LANallows hotel personnel and other authorized individuals to access the WC230 databases for review, modification and printout purposes, as well asother desired purposes.

The user/PMS interface 294 allows the appropriate personnel to enter allof the information required by the WC 230 during the check-in andcheck-out procedures. Thus, the guest's name, room number, remotetelephone number, check-in and check-out date/time and guest ID may beentered through the LAN 40. The check-in and check-out date/time entriesdefine the period in which the user is authorized to use the system 210.The user/PMS interface 294 also allows the appropriate personnel tomodify a guest's records if necessary; it also allows administrationfunctions to be performed on the system as well as the creation andprinting of any necessary system reports and the viewing/printing ofguest activity and call information. Modifications to the PMSinformation may be required if a guest checks into, or out of, the hotelat a date/time different from a reservation date/time.

The user/PMS interface 294 advantageously allows the check-in/out ofhotel guests in the system to be virtually seamless to the hotel staffby collecting all necessary data used by the hotel in performingstandard hotel check-in/out services. Moreover, the user/PMS interface294 allows the WC 230 and the system 210 to be seamlessly configured toaccommodate the arrival of new guests and the departures of existingguests. The WC 230 can access call accounting information (e.g., via adirect connection to the call accounting system 282) and hotel PMSinformation and may use or update this information as required.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, processormodule 310 (via telephony engine 298) executes one or more programsstored in memory module 320 to process calls received at the PBX 14 orPSTN 16. FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate some of the basic call processingevents, which WC 30 and WC 230 are programmed to handle in accordancewith preferred embodiments of the invention. Continuing with the currenthotel environment example of the invention, and referring to FIGS. 3 and4, the PBX 14 receives a call from the PSTN (e.g., from telephone 221),and rings the corresponding telephone 12 via its associated extension218 (step 402). This call is detected by the WC 230 (step 404). In oneembodiment of the invention, the call may be detected by detecting aringing signal at one of the PBX extensions 218.

In the present example, the WC 230 includes a plurality of analog ordigital line cards (not shown), each of which is coupled to one of theports 290. In the case of a digital connection between the WC 230 andthe PBX 14, the PBX 14 is programmed to out dial a digital trunkconnected to the WC 230 (usually an ISDN PRI) simultaneously uponreceiving an event to one of the ports 290. This enables the detectionof a telephone call on the associated extension 218. The system iscapable of determining which line port 291 has detected activity and thenature of the activity. Such activity may, for example, be an incomingcall to guest room telephone 12, or an internal session-to-session call.When the method 400 is initially executed, it is associated with andconnected to an appropriate line port 290.

When the WC 230 detects that the PBX 14 has received a call, at step 406a check is made to determine if the called guest is registered at thehotel and therefore eligible to receive in-bound calls and placeout-bound calls (i.e., whether the guest is a “valid user” of the system210). Specifically, the system compares the check-in and check-outinformation stored for the applicable guest to the current date/time. Ifthe verification is unsuccessful, invalid user processing is performedand a record is inserted into an activity table of the databasesubsystem (step 408). Invalid user processing may include any processingdeemed appropriate by the hotel administrator. It should be noted thatin another environment (e.g., enterprise office building), steps 406 and408 may not be required if all office or room telephones are authorizedto use the system 210.

If at step 406 it is determined that the guest is a valid user of thesystem 210, a call is placed to the guest's remote telephone (step 410).In the specific example illustrated in FIG. 3, a port 292 forcommunication with the guest's remote telephone would be reserved by theWC 230 prior to placing the call to the remote telephone. While dialingand waiting for connection confirmation, the system continues to monitorfor a calling party disconnect or local termination of the call (step412). If the calling party disconnects or other termination of the callis detected, the call processing (method 400) is stopped.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 3, if it is determined that the callis answered at the remote device 70, the WC 230 bridges the guest'sextension 218 at the PBX 14 to the guest's remote telephone and the callbegins (steps 414, 416). Once the call has ended, the system generatesall relevant date, time and billing information for writing to theapplicable date and time variables and updates any databases of thedatabase subsystem (step 422). In addition, call data is formatted andwritten into a call detail record, or “CDR.” If there was a callfailure, the system may produce information relating to the reasons forfailure. If the guest's remote telephone does not answer, the system mayrecord the reasons for the non-answer (e.g., no answer, call notaccepted, call answered late). This information may then be storedwithin the activity table for subsequent statistical analysis.

If the call is answered at the PBX 14, by either the hotel telephone 12or the hotel voice mail, the WC 30 drops the call to the remote device(steps 418, 420) and updates the databases accordingly (step 422).

In a preferred embodiment, once the call is connected to the remotedevice 70, a variety of message prompts such as “press 1 to connectcall” may be provided to the remote telephone. Since the calling partyhad originally placed the call to the guest's room telephone 12, thesemessages provide the guest with a number of different options such asthe opportunity to either accept or decline the call (e.g., the guestmay prefer that the caller leave a voice mail message at the hotel). Ifthe guest presses “1” or otherwise accepts the call, the call is bridgedby the WC 230 from the guest's extension 218 at the PBX 14 to theguest's remote telephone. If the guest does not accept the call or noresponse is provided, the call to the remote telephone is terminated,the originating caller is routed according to the default settings ofthe PBX 14, and the appropriate information entered into the connectdatabase. If the guest accepts the call, but the calling party haspreviously terminated the call or begun to leave a voice mail message atthe guest's room telephone 12, the system may play a message such as“the calling party has terminated the telephone call . . . ” for theremote telephone and the call is disconnected.

In this illustrated embodiment, the message prompt function ensures thatthe call is actually answered by the guest and not by another party(e.g., a service of the wireless carrier, wrong number, etc.). Today,wireless carriers may answer a call if there is a bad connection, thewireless channels are overloaded or for other reasons (such asinitiating a wireless answering service). This embodiment overcomes thedeficiencies of prior art communication systems by incorporating remotedevices into a PBX network.

FIG. 5 illustrates in flowchart form exemplary remote call processing500 performed by a preferred embodiment of the invention as it appliesto a hotel environment (illustrated in FIG. 3). The method 500 beginswhen a remote user places a call to the WC 230 (step 502). At step 504,the WC 230 detects the call (via the PSTN). After the call is detected,it is answered (step 506), and a check is made to verify that the remotetelephone is properly authorized to use the system (step 508). As partof the verification procedure, the system may verify that the ANI (i.e.,caller ID) or DNIS (i.e., number dialed)—depending on the configurationselected—from the guest's remote telephone 70 matches that currentlyregistered with the system prior to allowing the WC 230 to effectbridging to the PBX. If the remote calling telephone 70 is not validatedat step 508, invalid user processing is performed such e.g., playing a“not recognized” message and providing the caller with the option ofbeing connected to the operator of the PBX 14 (step 510). This enablesguests who may have been improperly registered to make emergency callsand/or notify the hotel of the improper registration.

In a preferred embodiment, if it is determined that the remote telephone70 has been properly registered (at step 508), the system plays anoptional introduction for the remote telephone 70 (step 512). At thispoint, the system seizes the room extension 218 associated with thecalling remote telephone. The WC 230 bridges the call to the remotetelephone 70 via the PBX extension 218 (step 514). For example, if aguest assigned to room 202 has registered his or her cellular telephonewith the hotel, then in response to an incoming call from thisregistered cellular telephone, the system seizes the room extension 218associated with room 202 and bridges it to the incoming call.

Once the guest has been bridged to its applicable room extension 218,the guest's remote telephone 70 will receive the PBX dial tone. Thisoccurs even if the guest's remote telephone 70 is a cellular telephone,which during normal operation would not be provided with a dial tone. Atstep 516, the guest is able to place a call (e.g., outbound,station-to-station, special services, front desk, etc.) through the PBX14 as if the guest were utilizing the telephone 12 in its hotel room.Upon disconnection of the call, all relevant date and time informationis generated and written into the appropriate databases and call detailrecord stored within the connect database (step 518).

As an alternate, a different extension of the PBX 14 is called ratherthan a guest's remote telephone in response to an inbound call directedto the guest's room telephone 12. Moreover, in other implementations aguest may be assigned to a “virtual” extension of the PBX 14 rather thanto an extension 218 physically associated with an actual room telephone12. In such an implementation the guest would have access to all of thefunctionality associated with the WC 30 or WC 230 described herein, butwould effectively be associated with a “roaming” primary telephonydevice rather than a room telephone 12.

Numerous embodiments of the invention have application to corporateenvironments. In one exemplary implementation applicable to a corporateenvironment, for example, an “800” number is established to enabledirect dial access to the WC from remote locations. Upon beingconnected, a remote system subscriber may be prompted for a “PIN” orother personal identifier and would be directly linked to the corporatePBX from a remote location. This configuration eliminates the need forcorporate travelers to carry calling cards, and can result insignificant savings on long distance toll charges since remote calls areplaced through the corporate PBX at favorably negotiated rates. Thisconfiguration also allows users to place multiple calls on the corporatePBX based on a single call to the wireless connect via inexpensive “800”inbound trunking.

In another preferred embodiment, the system has the ability to setaccess rights defining what type of calls the user can place from theremote device (e.g., local, long distance, international,station-to-station, etc.). One way of implementing this feature is touse PRI connections between the PSTN 54 and the WC 30, the PBX 14 andthe WC 30, and the PBX 14 and the PSTN 16, where users can be assignedinto particular access groups by assigning each user to a particularchannel or group of channels of the PRI. The user assignments can bestored in a database memory within memory module 320 of WC 30 for accessduring a validation or authentication process performed by processormodule 310. In the alternative, the responsibility over the userassignments can be incorporated into PBX 14 or some other(on-site/remote) equipment.

As is known in the art, in North America and Japan, for example, eachPRI contains 23 “B” channels that can be used for voice communications.Each B channel can be programmed with different calling capabilities bythe PBX 14. That is, some channels can be programmed for all types ofcalls (e.g., international, long distance, local etc.), others for longdistance and local calls, while others can be programmed solely forlocal or internal station-to-station calls. The channels can also berestricted to a limited number of authorized telephone numbers as well.The programming can be determined by the enterprise. Since the channelscan be programmed with different calling capabilities, the enterprisecan implement different access groups, with each group defining a user'sremote device access.

This feature significantly limits the enterprise's remote device (e.g.,wireless service) costs because user access to services can besubstantially restricted. For example, the enterprise may want deliverypersonnel to have a wireless telephone for internal dialing purposes,but may be afraid of misuse by the personnel. Implementing the aboveembodiment, the enterprise can group all wireless telephones assigned toits delivery personnel to a channel(s) restricted solely to internalcalls. Any grouping is possible. Priorities may also be assigned. A userassigned to group 1 (programmed for all calling capabilities) may begiven priority to bump a user assigned to group 2 (having less callingcapabilities) in the event that the channels assigned to group 1 arebusy. Any grouping or priority scheme can be implemented by theenterprise and is application specific.

In a preferred embodiment, WC 30 and WC 230 are co-located with theenterprises' PBX 14, but may also be centrally located in a remotelocation or distributed among the many locations, or any combination ofthese arrangements.

While preferred embodiments have been specifically described andillustrated herein, it should be apparent that many modifications to theembodiments and implementations of the invention can be made withoutdeparting from the spirit or scope of the invention. For example, whilethe preferred embodiments illustrated herein have been limited to theprocessing of voice (packet or circuit switched) calls, it should bereadily apparent that any form of call (e.g., audio, video, data) may beprocessed through WC 30 (or WC 230) to any communication device (e.g.,cellular phone, pager, office/residential landline telephone, computerterminal, personal digital assistant (PDA), etc.). The individual methodsteps of the exemplary operational flows illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5may be interchanged in order, combined, replaced or even added towithout departing from the scope of the invention. Any number ofdifferent operations not illustrated herein may be performed utilizingthe invention.

In addition, while the illustrated embodiments have demonstratedimplementations of the invention using PBX-based communication systems,it should be readily apparent that the WC module may be connected(directly, indirectly, co-located, or remotely) with any other networkswitching device or communication system used to process calls such as acentral switching office, centrex system, or Internet server fortelephone calls made over the public switched telephone network, privatetelephone networks, or even Internet Protocol (IP) telephony networksmade over the Internet. The use of a commercial wireless carrier network(represented by wireless switch 58 and antenna 60) as described hereinmay be implemented using one or more commercial carriers using the sameor different signaling protocols (e.g., Sprint PCS and Nextel, etc.)depending on the communication devices registered with the system.

It should be apparent that, while only PRI lines (e.g., between PBX 14and WC 30/WC 230, between PBX 14 and PSTN 16) have been illustrated indiscussing preferred embodiments of the invention, these communicationlines (as well as any other communication lines or media discussedherein) may be of any form, format, or medium (e.g., PRI, T1, OC3,electrical, optical, wired, wireless, digital, analog, etc.). Moreover,although PSTN 16, 54 are depicted as separate networks for illustrationpurposes, it should be readily apparent that a single PSTN network alonemay be used in reducing the invention to practice. It should be notedthat the WC 30/230 could trunk back to the PBX 14 instead of beingdirectly connected to the PSTN 54.

The modules described herein such as the modules making up WC 30 (or WC230), as well as WC 30 (or WC 230) and PBX 14 themselves, may be one ormore hardware, software, or hybrid components residing in (ordistributed among) one or more local or remote systems. It should bereadily apparent that the modules may be combined (e.g., WC 30 and PBX14) or further separated into a variety of different components, sharingdifferent resources (including processing units, memory, clock devices,software routines, etc.) as required for the particular implementationof the embodiments disclosed herein. Indeed, even a single generalpurpose computer executing a computer program stored on a recordingmedium to produce the functionality and any other memory devicesreferred to herein may be utilized to implement the illustratedembodiments. User interface devices utilized by in or in conjunctionwith WC 30 (or WC 230) may be any device used to input and/or outputinformation. The interface devices may be implemented as a graphicaluser interface (GUI) containing a display or the like, or may be a linkto other user input/output devices known in the art.

Furthermore, memory units employed by the system may be any one or moreof the known storage devices (e.g., Random Access Memory (RAM), ReadOnly Memory (ROM), hard disk drive (HDD), floppy drive, zip drive,compact disk-ROM, DVD, bubble memory, etc.), and may also be one or morememory devices embedded within a CPU, or shared with one or more of theother components. Accordingly, the invention is not to be seen aslimited by the foregoing description, but is only limited by the scopeof the appended claims.

1-60. (canceled)
 61. A telecommunications method comprising: detecting asignal at a physical connection to a physical extension associated witha first telephone number, the detected signal indicating receipt of afirst call; and bridging the first call from the physical extension to aremote device associated with a second telephone number in response todetecting the signal.
 62. The method of claim 61, wherein the signal isreceived over a digital trunk connection from a telephone exchange. 63.The method of claim 61, further comprising: determining whether thefirst telephone number corresponds to a registered user.
 64. The methodof claim 61, further comprising: placing a second call to the remotedevice in response to detecting the signal; and detecting that thesecond call is answered at the remote device, wherein bridging the firstcall is performed in response to detecting that the second call isanswered at the remote device.
 65. The method of claim 64, furthercomprising: reserving a port for communication with the remote device,wherein placing the second call is performed in response to reservingthe port.
 66. The method of claim 64, further comprising: detecting thatthe first call is answered at a telephone exchange; and terminating thesecond call in response to detecting that the first call is answered atthe telephone exchange.
 67. The method of claim 61, further comprising:determining that the first call is accepted at the remote device,wherein bridging the first call is performed in response to determiningthat the first call is accepted at the remote device.
 68. A method ofrouting a call in a system, the call being from a remote device, saidmethod comprising: detecting a signal at a physical connection to atelephone port associated with a first telephone number to indicatereceipt of a call from a remote device that is associated with a secondtelephone number; and bridging the call from the remote device to aphysical extension associated with the first telephone number inresponse to detecting the signal.
 69. The method of claim 68, furthercomprising: determining whether the remote device is authorized to usethe system.
 70. The method of claim 69, wherein determining whether theremote device is authorized to use the system comprises: determiningwhether automatic number identification (ANI) information or dialednumber identification service (DNIS) information received from theremote device corresponds to respective ANI information or DNISinformation that is registered with the system.
 71. The method of claim68, further comprising: providing a telephone exchange dial tone to theremote device in response to bridging the call.
 72. The method of claim68, further comprising: prompting a user of the remote device for apersonal identifier; and receiving the personal identifier, whereinbridging the call is performed in response to receiving the personalidentifier.
 73. The method of claim 68, further comprising: enablingplacement of multiple calls on a telephone exchange associated with thephysical extension based on the call from the remote device.
 74. Themethod of claim 68, further comprising: setting access rights for theremote device.
 75. The method of claim 74, wherein setting the accessrights includes: assigning the remote device to an access group forwhich authorized types of calls are established.
 76. The method of claim74, wherein setting the access rights includes: limiting access of theremote device to authorized telephone numbers.
 77. The method of claim68, further comprising: assigning a priority to the remote device; andcontrolling access of the remote device to the system based on thepriority.
 78. An article comprising a computer readable medium forstoring instructions that, when executed, enable a processor-basedsystem to perform operations comprising: detecting a signal at aphysical connection to a telephone port associated with a firsttelephone number, the detected signal indicating receipt of a call froma remote device that is associated with a second telephone number; andbridging the call from the remote device to a physical extensionassociated with the first telephone number in response to detecting thesignal.
 79. The article of claim 78, further storing instructions that,when executed, enable a processor-based system to determine whether theremote device is authorized to use the system.
 80. The article of claim78, further storing instructions that, when executed, enable aprocessor-based system to set access rights for the remote device.